Adult Readers Archives - Page 68 of 154

Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee – A Look Inside North Korea by Jang Jin-Sung, translated by Shirley Lee

05 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Korean, Memoir, Nonfiction, North Korean, Translation

While the majority of the nonfiction books about North Korea have focused on the extreme deprivation and unbearable suffering of the common citizen – for example, labor camps and slave children born to prisoners in Blaine Harden's Escape from Camp 14, numerous "ordinary lives" in Barbara Demick's...

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro [in Christian Science Monitor]

03 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, British Asian, Fiction, Repost

The Buried Giant – the much anticipated seventh novel of Kazuo Ishiguro – does not disappoint The first question readers will most likely be asking about Kazuo Ishiguro’s seventh novel, The Buried Giant, will be, “Is it worth the decade-long wait?” The short answer is a...

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

02 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Indian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, South Asian American

Ah finally, I'm fully caught up with the good doc, having read each of Atul Gawande’s four bestsellers in published order. And how grateful am I to have followed through so methodically, because all that 'homework' certainly made this, his latest, an even fuller read. Here's...

Discontent and Its Civilizations: Dispatches from Lahore, New York, and London by Mohsin Hamid [in Christian Science Monitor]

26 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, British Asian, Memoir, Nonfiction, Pakistani, Repost, South Asian

'Civilization and its Discontents' highlights the intertwined Pakistani, British, and American roots of Mohsin Hamid Thanks to Haruki Murakami, we won't have to wait as long for Mohsin Hamid’s future novels. Hamid's acclaimed first two, Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, took seven years each. His...

Author Interview: Thrity Umrigar [in Bloom]

25 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Indian American, Repost, South Asian American

I was bad. I couldn’t keep up with my chaotic new year and kept missing deadlines. Thrity Umrigar got so fed up, she basically said, “This happens now, or not at all.” So you better believe I got my act together long enough for one...

Ruby by Cynthia Bond

24 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction

How surprised was I to hear earlier this month that Oprah's latest Book Club 2.0 pick just happened to be on my iPod! I suppose the fact that I always have no fewer than a couple dozen books on my phone at all times makes...

The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar + Author Profile [in Bloom]

23 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Author Interview/Profile, Black/African American, Fiction, Indian American, Repost, South Asian American

Thrity Umrigar: “It’s a good time to be a writer” Perhaps I shouldn’t admit so blatantly to literary-personality preferences, but I must confess here: Thrity Umrigar is my very favorite person to run into at (dreaded) literary conferences. I know from experience how irreverently entertaining she can...

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

21 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction

It's on top of all the bestseller lists on both sides of the Pond and far beyond, as well. You've seen it in every bookshop window. It's incessantly compared to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. Dreamworks already claimed it for the big screen last year even before it hit...

Prophecy (vols. 1-2) by Tetsuya Tsutsui, translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian

20 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

His user name is "paperboy_1878." He rents booths at various Pit Boy internet café branches. He wears a newspaper mask that covers his whole head and a t-shirt with a smart phone screen. He posts video warnings. And then he carries out his own vigilante...

Henshin by Ken Niimura, edited by Yumetaro Toyoda, translated by Ivy Yukiko Ishihara Oldford

13 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

If you're already a manga/anime aficionado, feel free to skip ahead to the next paragraph. If this is the first time you're hearing the titular word, henshin, then stay with me for a few lines. In Japanese – 変身 – the characters literally mean "change" and "body," respectively, and...

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande

11 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Indian American, Nonfiction, South Asian American

In order to give myself permission to read the latest bestseller by Rhodes Scholar/surgeon/professor/MacArthur “Genius”/New Yorker/TED-anointed Dr. Atul Gawande (and yes, all his books are lauded, importantly nominated, finalist-ed, awarded bestsellers), I decided I had to first finish his previous titles in order. What might sound a bit like unnecessary pressure just to...

The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup

09 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, South Asian

Trust me, you're just going to have to go with the impossible premise right up front. If you need a little help, you can choose to go audible, because expert narrator Sneha Mathan will surely help you believe. Go ahead, check your doubts: you'll be amply rewarded by career diplomat...

The Four Books by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas [in Library Journal]

02 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Yan Lianke (Dream of Ding Village) has built his substantial career on exposing the surreal absurdity of China's 20th-century tragedies. His latest-in-translation features the 99th district of a reeducation camp, where intellectuals controlled by a maniacally cruel yet innocently naïve child endure merciless conditions...

Happy Are the Happy by Yasmina Reza, translated by John Cullen [in Christian Science Monitor]

28 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, Repost, Translation

Happy Are the Happy spins a lively cluster of stories around a Parisian couple and their social network At a spare 160 pages, Yasmina Reza’s latest novel can easily be read in a single sitting. Presented as 21 interlinked short stories whose titles bear the names...

Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande

26 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Indian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, South Asian American

"This is a book about performance in medicine," Atul Gawande writes in the "Introduction" of his second bestselling title (he's got four total thus far – and counting!). "In medicine, as in any profession, we must grapple with systems, resources, circumstances, people – and our own...

The Lost Book of Mormon: A Journey Through the Mythic Lands of Nephi, Zarahemla, and Kansas City, Missouri by Avi Steinberg

20 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Jewish, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

In an attempt to better understand the unfamiliar territory in which I find myself domiciled through June 2016 (yes, I'm counting), I've been reading quite a few titles that hopefully will provide insight into the mindset of some of our would-be neighbors. Many of those books...

All You Need Is Kill, original story by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, storyboards by Ryosuke Takeuchi, original illustrations by yoshitoshi ABe, art by Takeshi Obata, translated by Tetsuichiro Miyaki

16 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

See how long this post title is above? Well, apparently, I seem to be discovering this spectacular story (and it really, truly is!) in its umpteenth iteration. Better late than never, I must say, because I'm convinced that this manga rendition is the very best...

Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande

15 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Indian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, South Asian American

Atul Gawande’s latest (and fourth) book, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, has been on countless 2014 'best-of' lists. His three previous titles have all been bestsellers, he's a 1987 Rhodes Scholar, a 2006 MacArthur "Genius" Fellow, and a TED favorite. He's also a...

You Have to F**king Eat by Adam Mansbach, illustrated by Owen Brozman

14 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

From the same potty-mouthed, hysterically entertaining dynamic duo who brought you that other, not-for-children picture book, Go the F**ck to Sleep, comes the logical follow-up that confronts the next big parenting challenge: after not doing so well with the slumbering, now you've got the impossible task...

In a Rocket Made of Ice: Among the Children of Wat Opot by Gail Gutradt, with a foreword by Dr. Paul Farmer

12 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Cambodian, Jewish, Memoir, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Gail Gutradt is not a journalist. She is not a nurse or doctor, and actually has no training in the medical profession. She is not a mother. She is not a Buddhist. She speaks very little Khmer. For everything she is not, Gutradt is a...

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